Offset printing web feed control

ABSTRACT

Means are provided to intermittently feed sheet material under positive control relative to a continuously rotating blanket cylinder in an offset printing press so as to enable the imprints to be made on the sheet material at controlled, given distances apart irrespective of the lengths of the gaps between the ends of the plate or blanket of the offset printing press.

United States Patent [72] Inventors RobertJ.Crissy Caldwell; John F. Spano, Cresskill; Edwin K. Wolff, Stockholm, all of NJ.

[21] Appl. No. 780,387

[22] Filed Dec. 2, 1968 [45] Patented Oct. 5, 1971 [73] Assignee New Jersey Machine Corporation Hnboken, NJ.

[54] OFFSET PRINTING WEB FEED CONTROL 22 Claims, 8 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S. Cl 101/228, 101/253,10l/418 [51] Int. Cl B4lf 7/04 [50] Field of Search..... 101/226, 227, 228, 417, 418

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 533,186 1/1895 Toye 101/418X 596,025 12/1897 Crowell 101/418 810,608 l/1906 Barker 101/227 X 938,381 10/1909 Huffman 101/228 1,018,617 2/1912 Huffman 101/228 1,581,151 4/1926 Yetter 101/228 1,978,073 10/1934 Belcher 101/228 2,598,523 5/1952 Federwitz 101/76 X 2,953,987 9/1960 Johnson et al. 101/336 3,102,472 9/1963 Kieckhefer.... 101/228 3,167,008 l/1965 Edgeley ct a1. 101/228 Primary ExaminerRobert E. Pulfrey Assistant Examiner-C. Coughenour Attorneys-Sylvester J. Liddy, John J. Hart, Joe E. Daniels and Charles E. Baxley ABSTRACT: Means are provided to intermittently feed sheet material under positive control relative to a continuously rotating blanket cylinder in an offset printing press so as to enable the imprints to be made on the sheet material at controlled, given distances apart irrespective of the lengths of the gaps between the ends of the plate or blanket of the offset printing press.

PATENTEUBBT 519?: 3610,14?

SHEET 1 0F 5 ROBERT J (R/55V JOHN F. SPANO 1 By EDWIN K WOLF F PATENTEU [m 51971 sum 2 or 5 FIG. 2

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IN VEN TORS ROBERT J. C [2/55 V JOHN E SPANO EDWIN K. WOLFF FIG. 8

w A T fNEY PATENTEU um 51971 sum 3 [IF lNVENTO/ZS ROBERT J CR/SSV JOHN E $P4NO EDWIN K. WOLFF PATENTED DDT 5 I971 3.6107147 SHEET 8 0F 5 FIG-4 INVENTORS ROBERT J. (R/S5) JOHN F, SPANO EDWIN WOLFF P fitm PATENTEDUBT sum 381014? sum 5 [1F 5 INVENTORS ROBERT J. (R 55y JOHN F. SPANO EDWIN K. WOLFF By yw A TTORNEV FIG. 7 2/2 OFF SET PRINTING WEB FEED CONTROL THE INVENTION This invention relates to the printing of labels, forms, and the like, by the offset printing method so as to enable the imprints to be made at controlled, given distances apart irrespective of the lengths of the gaps between the ends of the plate or blanket of the offset printing press. The invention is especially advantageous in the printing of a succession of images on a continuous strip of material, but certain features thereof may be used with equal benefit in the printing of sheets fed in a controlled manner.

Offset printing provides a number of well recognized advantages over other types of printing that render its use desirable in many fields in which it cannot now be satisfactorily employed because of certain inherent shortcomings. The principal complaint against offset printing, especially when reproducing images on continuous webs, such as labels in roll fonn, is its inflexibleness in cutoff length resulting from the gap between the ends of the plate or blanket used in such method, and the fact that the cylinders usually are of the same fixed size because of the design of the press. These two factors have rendered the offset printing machine undesirable in the printing of roll labels, for example, because it is impractical and too costly for short runs of printing, and because it provides unprinted spaces on the web between repeats of the label that cause difficulties when severing the labels in the labeling machines.

It is the primary purpose of the present invention to provide a method and means by which offset printing can be accomplished without the aforesaid disadvantage.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a method and means enabling the printing of labels at uniform distances apart on a continuous web by offset printing.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method and means enabling the printing of labels on a continuous web by offset printing so that the labels at the beginning and ends of repeats will be spaced the same as the labels in the bodies of the repeats.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method and means enabling a series of imprints to be made by offset printing at controlled, given distances apart regardless of the lengths of the gaps between the ends of the plate or blanket of the offset printing press.

Other objects, as well as the advantages and novel features of the invention, will appear from a perusal of the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of an offset printing machine embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the impression cylinder portion of the machine shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view showing a detail of the driving mechanism for the web feed;

FIG. 4, is a vertical sectional view, looking along the line 4-4 of FIG. 2, but showing the impression cylinder of different construction than that illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view showing how the invention may be employed with a plurality of blankets;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view showing how the invention may be utilized with a flat impression plate;

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of an offset press embodying the invention, but provided with an intermittently operat ing impression cylinder; and

FIG. 8 is a schematic detail of a modified form of web feed for the apparatus shown in FIG. 6.

The offset printing machine illustrated in FIGS. l3 of the drawings includes a plate cylinder 10 of customary construction having associated therewith rolls for applying ink and dampener or wetting solution to the plate 11 mounted thereon. The ink is shown applied in three different colors by three separate inking mechanisms 12, 13 and 14 of customary construction. A dampening unit of known construction applies the wetting solution i.e., water, to the plate. The applications of the inks, say red, blue and black by the inking rolls I2, 13 and 14, respectively, are controlled by the cams 12', I3 and 14, respectively, projecting from the periphery of the cylinder 10, and are applied to the plate portions 12", I3" and 14", respectively. The cams 12', 13' and 14' also control the applying roll of the dampening unit 15 so that applications of the dampening are applied to portions 15' of the plate located intermediate the plate portions l2", l3" and 14" and with centers apart. The plate 11 may be of any suitable construction, and may be a thin, destructible, unitary plate such as disclosed in pending application Ser. No 780,408 filed Dec. 2, 1968, by Robert J. Crissy, and on which all of the separate images of the label indicia required for the printing of three-color labels by an offset printing method are provided. However, it is within the contemplation of the invention to use instead of such unitary plate, a plurality of plates in the manners known to the art. It will be noted that the plate 11 is mounted on the cylinder 10 in the usual fashion so that there is provided between the ends thereof a plate gap 16 of substantial length.

In tangential arrangement with the plate cylinder 10, is a blanket cylinder 20 having a circumferential dimension onethird the circumferential dimension of the cylinder 10. The cylinder 20 is provided with a blanket 21 having an active or working circumferential dimension equal to the circumferential length of the plate portions 12', I3" and 14'', so that there is provided a gap 22 of substantial length. It will be understood that the blanket cylinder 20 will revolve three times for every revolution of the plate cylinder 10 and that on each revolution thereof there will be applied to the blanket 21 thereof, the inked images from one of the plate portions 12", 13" and 14". Thus, at the end of the three revolutions of the cylinder 20, there will have been applied to the blanket 21 all of the images of the plate portions 12', 13" and 14" to provide complete inked replicas of the labels which are to be transferred thereby to the strip or continuous web of label backing material. It will be understood that if such transfer were made continuously in the manner heretofore practiced, there would be spaces on the strip 25 between the repeats equal to the length of the blanket gap 22. As has been previously indicated, this invention makes it possible to effect such transfer so that regardless of the length of the blanket gap 22 the imprints made by the blanket on the strip 25 will be controlled given distances apart. Thus, whether there is a single label on the blanket circumferentially, or repeats thereof either touching at their ends, or spaced apart given distances, the successive imprints on the strip 25 throughout the length of such strip will be touching at their ends, or spaced on the strip the same spaced-apart distance used in the blanket repeats.

The blanket cylinder 20 is tangentially arranged with an impression cylinder 30 mounted on a shaft 29 rotatably supported by suitable bearings provided in the side frames 28, 28' of the machine (compare FIGS. 1 and 2). The impression cylinder 30 is in the nature of a cage and is composed of a circular end wall 31 and an end plate 32 connected together in spaced relation by an arcuately shaped transverse spacer member 33 and a diametrically disposed, arcuately shaped impression segment 34. It will be noted that the impression segment is located to form a transverse peripheral portion of the cylinder 30 and that the spacer 33 is located radially inwardly from the periphery of the end wall 31. As a result of this construction and the irregular reduced configuration of the end plate or wall 32, ready access may be had to the interior of the cylinder 30 without disassembling it. The impression segment 34 has an impression area at least as great as the image area of the largest blanket 21 that may be mounted on the blanket cylinder 20 and may have a length at least as great as the length of the longest label to be printed in a given range, say of the order of 11 inches, so that the cylinder 30 can be used without change for all labels up to 11 inches in size. Mounted on shaft 29 adjacent to the end of the wall 31, is a gear 36 whose teeth are in mesh with the teeth of a gear 37 mounted on a shaft 38 provided with a pulley wheel 39. The pulley 39 is connected by a belt 40 to a pulley wheel 41 mounted on the shaft of a continuously driven motor 42. The gear 36 is also in mesh with a gear 43 associated with the blanket cylinder 20. The blanket cylinder gear 43 is in turn meshed with a gear 44 mounted on the shaft supporting the plate cylinder and supported by the side frames 28,28. Thus, the cylinders 10, 20 and 30 are continuously driven by the motor 42. The blanket cylinder 20 is mounted to enable it to be translated away from the cylinders 10 and 30 without disengaging the train of gearing connecting the three cylinders together. As is shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings, the blanket cylinder 20 and its associated gear 43 are mounted on a shaft 45 carried by one arm of a bellcrank lever 46 mounted for pivotal movement about the axis of a shaft 47. The other arm of lever 46 is connected to the stem of a pivotally mounted air piston 48 controlled by a solenoid-operated air valve 49. The solenoid air valve 49 is connected by suitable wiring to a limit switch 50 which is actuated whenever a manually operated handle 81 is moved to stop the feed of the paper strip 25, to cause the air valve 49, through the piston 48 and lever 46, to disengage the blanket cylinder 20 from the cylinders 10 and 30. As is shown in FIG. 1, the blanket cylinder 20 when so disengaged, has been moved from the full line position thereof to the dotted line position thereof, which is not sufi'rcient to break the train of gearing connecting such cylinders to the motor 42. When the blanket cylinder 20 is moved to disengaged position as aforesaid, the machine is rendered inoperative to print on the strip 25 and as will hereinafter become more clear, to punch holes in such strip because an operating cam 118 mounted on the blanket cylinder shaft 45 will have been moved with such shaft out far enough so that it cannot come into operating contact with an operating roller 117 associated with the punching means, thereby rendering the latter inoperative. In other words, when the blanket cylinder 20 is retracted to its disengaged position, no printing or punching operations can be performed by the printing machine.

It will be understood from the foregoing that in the operation of the printer the three cylinders 10, 20 and 30 are each revolving in the directions indicated by the arrows at a constant velocity, and that the blanket cylinder 20 may be disengaged at will from the cylinders 10 and 30 without disturbing the rotative movements or registration of the three cylinders with relation to each other. As previously indicated, the blanket cylinder 20 revolves three times for every revolution of the plate cylinder 10 to enable a composite of all of the inked images on the plate 11 to be formed on the blanket 21. As the blanket cylinder 20 completes its third revolution and is starting on the first revolution of its next cycle of operation, the beginning of its blanket 21 will come into biting contact with the advancing end of the impression segment 34 on cylinder 30 and the blanket will transfer the composite of the images thereon to a portion 25' of the paper strip 25 as the cylinders 20 and 30 continue their rotation. FIG. 1 shows the completion of the rolling action of the blanket 21 relative to the impression segment 34. It will be noted that in accordance with the invention, while the portion 25' of the paper strip is moving relative to the blanket 21 during the transfer of the composite images thereto, such paper portion 25 will be stationary relative to the impression segment 34 during such transfer. This transfer operation will occur once for every revolution of the impression cylinder 30.

When the transfer of the images from the blanket 21 to the paper strip 25 has been completed, the paper strip is advanced to place a new portion 25 thereof on the impression segment 34 ready for the next succeeding transfer of the images from the blanket to the paper strip. As is shown in the drawings, the paper strip 25 is fed from a supply roll 55 mounted on a shaft 56 supported at its ends by the end walls 31,32 of cylinder 30. Shaft 56, as is customary in the art is an idler shaft equipped with a friction disk acting as a braking device to stop the roll 55 from unwinding as soon as the means for drawing the paper strip therefrom stops its drawing action. The paper strip 25 is drawn from the supply roll 55 by the coaction of a pair of feed rolls 57 and 58. Feed roll 57 is mounted on a shaft 59 rotatably supported at its ends on one arm of two bellcrank levers 60,60 pivotally supported by pins 61,61 provided on the end walls 31,32 of the cylinder 30. The other arms of the bellcrank levers 60,60 are held against movable locking members 62,62 (in FIG. 4) by springs 69,69 secured to the end walls 31,32 (Note FIG. 2). The movements of the members 62,62 are controlled by manually operable handset wheels 63,63. It will be understood that when the wheels 63,63 are turned in one direction the arms of the levers 60,60 will be moved by the members 62,62 so that the levers will pivot about their pins 61,61 to retract the roll 57 from its paper feeding position relative to the roll 58, thereby facilitating the threading of the paper strip between such feed rolls. When the paper strip has been properly threaded between the feed rolls, the handwheels 63,63 may be properly turned to allow the movement of the members 62,62 so the feed roll 57 is again advanced to web feeding position. The paper strip advanced by the feed rolls 57,58 passes over the impression segment 34 and is taken up by a rewind roll 64 mounted on a shaft 65 supported at its ends by the cylinder end walls 31,32. Mounted on shaft 65 is a sprocket 66 connected by a chain 67 to a drive sprocket 68 for driving the rewind roll in a manner which will hereinafter by pointed out.

The paper strip 25 is intermittently fed over the impression segment 34 by the feed rolls 57,58 and the rewind roll 64 in a manner now to be explained. Located between side frame 28 and the impression cylinder gear 36 is a vertically disposed bellcrank lever 75 which is pivotally mounted on a pin 76 secured to the side frame 28. One arm 77 of the bellcrank is adjustably secured to the side frame 28 by a bolt 78 threadedly connected to the side frame 28 and extending through an arcuately shaped slot 80 provided on such arm. The' head of the bolt 78 has attached thereto a handle 79 by which it may readily be turned in a fastening or releasing direction. When the handle 79 is operated to turn the bolt 78 to release the arm 77, the bellcrank 75 may be pivoted about the axis of pin 76 by manually actuating a handle 81 connected to and forming an extension of the arm 77 beyond the side edge of the side frame 28. When the bellcrank am 77 has been pivoted to the desired extent, the handle 79 is turned in the opposite direction to cause the bolt 78 to secure it in that position. The extent to which the arm 77 is pivoted about its axis can readily be determined by a pointer 82 provided on the end of such arm and associated with a feed indicator scale 83 mounted on the side frame 28. The other arm 88 of the bellcrank 75 is provided at its outer, upper end with a bearing hub 89 which encircles the shaft 29 of the imprmion cylinder 30. The bellcrank 75 is so constructed and arranged with respect to the shaft 29, that when the pointer 82 is positioned at the setting zero on the scale 83, the axial center 90 in FIG. 3 of the hub 89 thereof will coincide with the longitudinal axis 91 of the shaft 29. When the arm 77 is pivoted in the manner previously explained to move the pointer 82 from a zero position on the scale 83 to another position on such scale as shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings, the bellcrank arm 88 will pivot in the opposite direction, i.e., the direction of the arrow 92 in FIG. 3, to move the axial center 90 of the hub 89 off the longitudinal axis 91 of the shaft 29. Thus the hub 89 will be moved from a position of exact concentricity with the shaft 29 to a degree of eccentricity therewith dependent upon the adjustment that is made of bellcrank arm 77. It will be hereinafter seen that when the hub 89 and shaft 29 are exactly concentric there will be no feed of the paper strip 25, while the degree of eccentricity to which such parts are adjusted will determine the length of the portion 25' of the paper strip fed in each cycle of movement of the impression cylinder 30.

Mounted on the hub 89 of what may be called the eccentric arm 88, is a large bearing 95 which revolvably supports for free rotational movement about the hub axis 90, a link 96 which is pivotally connected at its outer end to a pin 103 on the outer end of a clutch arm 97. The arm 97 is secured at its other end to the shaft 98 of an indexing clutch 99 of the overrunning type so that it will drive in one direction only, i.e., in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 3 of the drawings. As will be observed in FIG. 2 of the drawings, the shaft 98 extends through the impression cylinder gear 36 and is rotatably supported by bearings 100,100 mounted in said gear and in the end wall 31 of the impression cylinder 30. As a result of this arrangement, shaft 98 which is in parallelism with shaft 29, will have a fixed circularly translatory or orbiting movement about the latter. It is to be noted that both the rotational movement of shaft 29 and the circular translatory movement of shaft 98 are caused by the continuously driven impression cylinder gear 36 as it is revolved by the motor 42. If during such translatory movement of shaft 98, the hub 89 and shaft 29 are concentric, arm 97 will drag link 96 about their coincidental axes 90,91 without disturbing their adjusted angular relationships or the relation of pin 103 to the coincidental axes 90,91. As has been previously indicated this condition results when the feed indicator 83 has been set at zero and there is no paper feed. Also as has been previously indicated, when the paper feed is set at zero the limit switch 50 will be actuated to cause the disengagement of the blanket cylinder 20. Further, if during such translatory movement of shaft 98, the hub 89 has been adjusted to an eccentric position relative to the shaft 29 by reason of an adjustment of the paper feed indicator to a desired feed, as is shown in FIG. 3, the arm 97 will be given an oscillating motion of a modified harmonic nature about the axis of shaft 98, as indicated by the arrows designated 101 in said figure. The extent of such oscillating motion will depend upon the extent of eccentricity to which the hub 89 has been adjusted in setting the extent of feed of the paper strip to which the bellcrank arm 77 has been adjusted relative to the feed indicator 83. In other words, the greater the distance the indicator 82 on arm 77 has been set from zero on the scale 83, the greater the range of oscillation of the pivotal connection 103 between the arm 97 and link 96 about the longitudinal axis of the shaft 98. The angular motion thus imparted to the am 97 will cause the shaft 98 to have a corresponding reciprocating rotational motion during its translatory movement about shaft 29. As has been previously indicated motion of the arm 97 toward the axis 91 of shaft 29 will cause the clutch 99 to drive with a harmonic acceleration and deceleration in the direction of the arrow indicated in FIG. 3. During the half-cycle when the arm 97 is moving out away from the shaft axis 91, the clutch 99 will be making an idle return movement. As is shown more clearly in FIG. 2 of the drawings, the clutch 99 is connected by gearing 102 of the feed roll 58 and consequently during the driving movement will feed the web or strip 25 with a harmonic accelerating and decelerating movement, an amount corresponding to the adjustment of the feed indicator 83. Thus, the strip feed length can be made variable from zero to maximum value depending on such adjustment. By proper adjustment of such feed of the paper, the images transferred to the paper strip by the blanket 21 can be applied in end-to-end engagement regardless of the length of the gap on such blanket, or if there are repeats provided on such blanket in a given spaced relation, such given space lengths can be maintained between blanket repeats by such adjustment so that all of the imprints will be equally spaced throughout the length of the strip. The feed rolls 57,58 which function in the nature of metering rolls will precisely ration out the prescribed increment of paper with each printing impression under the control of the metering assembly to effect such results and will prevent any excessive and irregular advances of the paper strip. It will also be noted that the halfcycle idle movement of the clutch 99 occurs when the impression segment 34 is in engagement with the blanket 21 and that the driving action of such clutch to feed the paper strip occurs when the impression segment is out of engagement with such blanket. It will be further noted that the strip 25 during the application of an impression thereto is being moved at the same velocity as the impression surface of the segment 34 and that after the application of the impression thereto its velocity is changed to cause a succeeding portion thereof to be fed over the impression surface. In the embodiment of FIG. 1 this velocity of the strip is changed by subtracting an increment of v,

motion or moving it countercurrent to the direction of rotation of the impression cylinder 30, to decrease the velocity of the strip during such interval of strip advance. It is within the contemplation of the invention however, to reverse the positions of the supply roll 55 and the takeup roll 64 with relation to the segment 34 and reverse their direction of operation so that the paper will feed over the segment in the opposite direction. Thus, the said change in velocity will be attained by adding an increment of motion to the velocity of the paper strip to effect such advancement of the strip relative to the segment 34.

It will be observed from FIG. 2 of the drawings, that the previously described sprocket 68 constituting part of the drive for the rewind roll 64 is connected to the indexing clutch 99 on shaft 98. Since the rewind roll must take up the web at a rate as fast as it is fed out by the feed rolls 57,58, the rewind sprocket ratio is selected to drive the rewind faster than is necessary. A slipping clutch is interposed between its drive and the rewind roll in a manner known to the art so that the rewind roll accepts only the amount of web that is fed out. There may also be provided on the rewind shaft a spring loaded bearing cap and shaft holder of known construction, to provide sufficient residual torque on the rewind roll shaft to keep the web in a state of tension when the gear train driving this shaft is at rest during the half-cycle of no web feed.

The impression cylinder 30 shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings is constructed in a manner essentially the same as the impression cylinder illustrated in FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings, but is additionally provided with means for punching holes in the paper strip 25 for purposes of control which is highly desirable when printing a series of drug labels on the continuous web 25. The punching means is located adjacently to the trailing end of the impression segment 34 and comprises one or more units for punching a hole or a row of holes in a desired relation to the imprint or imprints applied by the blanket 21. Thus, by proper adjustment of the punching means, a hole or row of holes may be made in given registered relation in or adjacent to the imprint or imprints which have been applied to the strip in the preceding operation of the blanket 21 and alter the strip has been advanced one step to place a new portion 25' thereof on the impression segment 34 for the next printing operation. Each unit preferably includes a punch carried by a punchholding member 111 and cooperating with a die plate 112 over which the paper strip 25 moves on its way to the rewind roll 64. Associated with the die plate 112 is a scrap collector 113. The aforesaid parts 110-113 are mounted on a slide 114 movable in a holder 115 secured for circumferential adjustment to the cylinder end wall 31. The slide 114 is biased by a spring 116 to normally maintain the punch 110 in retracted position. The slide 114 also carries an operating roller 117 engageable with a cam segment 118 located in the gap between the ends of the blanket 21 on the cylinder 20. It will thus be seen that just after the strip 25 has had applied thereto an imprint by the blanket 21, the operating roller 117 will move into engagement with the cam segment 118 and be advanced by the latter against the tension of spring 116 and cause the punch 110 and die plate 112 to cut out a hole in the previously printed portion 25 of the strip 25. It will be observed that this punching operation on the previously printed portion 25', as well as the printing operation on the subsequent strip portion 25', occurs while the paper strip 25 is stationary with relation to the punch unit and the impression segment during a period of one-half revolution of the impression cylinder. As previously indicated, during the second half revolution of the cylinder, the paper strip is advanced to bring another new portion 25' into position on the impression segment, in position to receive the next impression from the blanket 21.

The embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 5 of the drawings illustrates the manner in which the invention may be practiced using blanket means for applying successive images to the paper strip 25 instead of a composite image as in the machines shown in FIGS. 1-4. In the embodiment of FIG. 5, the three differently colored images are provided on two plates 11', 11" mounted on two plate cylinders and 10"; the images to be inked by inking rolls comparable to the rolls 12 and 13 in FIG. 1, being provided on the portions 12', 13', respectively, of the plate 11", and the images to be inked by inking rolls to the inking rolls 14 in FIG. 1, being provided on the portion 14" of plate 11'. Blanket cylinders ',20" are asociated with the plate cylinders 10',10", respectively, and with the impression cylinder 30, in the same manner as the cylinders 10, 20 and 30 in the construction of FIG. 1. Also, blanket cylinder 30 and the parts associated therewith are similar to that shown in FIG. 1.

lt will be understood, that in the operation of the machine shown in FIG. 5, a composite of two of the colored images will be produced on the blanket 21" of cylinder 20" and that images in the third color will be produced separately on the blanket 21' of cylinder 20'. Thus, a composite two-colored image will be initially impressed on the paper strip portion 25 overlying the impremion segment 34 as the cylinder is moving in a counterclockwise direction, as is shown in FIG. 5. As the cylinder 30 and segment 34 continue their movement, the colored images on the blanket 21 will be superimposed on the composite impression applied to the paper portion 25' by blanket 21". The paper feed mechanism provided in the cylinder 30 is so adjusted that when the trailing end 104 passes the point 105 in the cycle of movement of the cylinder 30 the advance of the paper strip will be initiated and may be continued until such trailing end 104 reaches the half-cycle point 106. When the trailing end 104 passes the cycle point 106 the web 25 has stopped advancing and the desired portion 25 thereof is properly in position on the segment 34 for the next printing.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6 of the drawings, the impression cylinder and its associated impression segment in the embodiments of FIGS. 1-4, have been replaced by an impression segment in the form of a plate 130 provided on the upper end of a vertically disposed carriage 131. The carriage 131 is provided at its lower edge with two pairs of supporting elements 132 which slidably engage longitudinally extending slide elements 133 in the form of two spaced bars secured at their ends to two transverse end blocks 134, 134. Slidable movement is imparted to the carriage 131 through a cylindrical cam 135 mounted for continuous rotational movement about a horizontal axis 140. The cam 135 is provided with an external cam groove 136 in which rides a cam roller 137 provided on one end of a pivoted am 138. The roller carrying end of am 138 is connected by a link 139 to the carriage 131. It will be understood that as the cam 135 continuously rotates, the carriage 131 and consequently the impression plate 130 will be reciprocated back and forth on the slide bars 133. The earn 135 has a rotatable speed similar to that of the plate cylinder 10 so that it will revolve one revolution for each revolution of the plate cylinder. The groove 136 on the cam has a constant velocity profile and is formed to cause the impression plate 130 to travel through a distance at least equal to the circumferential length of the blanket 21 on cylinder 20.

The plate and blanket cylinders in FIG. 6 are constructed similarly to the plate cylinder 10 and blanket cylinder 20 in the embodiment of FIG. 1 and function to provide a composite three color impression on the blanket cylinder 20 in the manner described in FIG. 1. The two cylinders 10 and 20 of FIG. 6 are also drivingly connected together in the same manner as the corresponding cylinders in FIG. 1. The blanket cylinder 20 of FIG. 6 however, is connected for its drive by a sprocket 120, a chain 121 and a sprocket 122 to a shaft rotatably supported by a bearing provided in a fixed vertical frame member 123 and having secured thereto a bevel gear 124. As indicated in FIG. 6, the plate cylinder 10 and blanket cylinder 20 of this embodiment are also rotatably mounted on the frame member 123 which has a base 125 that stands on the ground. Gear 124 meshes with a gear 126 provided at the top of a vertical shaft 127 that is suitably geared at its lower end to the shaft of a drive motor 128 mounted on the base 125. The motor driven shaft 127 is also connected by suitable gearing 129 to the horizontal shaft 140 of cam 135 which is rotatably supported by bearings 141, 141 mounted on the frame member 123.

It will be observed from the arrows designated 142 and 143 shown in FIG. 6 in association with the impression plate 130, that during the forward stroke of the carriage 131, the impression plate 130 will be moved forwardly in a raised condition as indicated by the solid arrow 142 so that the blanket 21 on cylinder 20 will engage with the portion 25' of the paper strip 25 on the impression plate 130. On the return stroke of the carriage 131, the plate 130 will be dropped sufiiciently, as indicated by the dotted arrow designated 143, to disengage the paper strip from the cylinder 20 and blanket 21. This motion of the impression plate 130 indicated by the arrows 142, 143, is accomplished by the cooperation with the cam 135, of a disc cam 144 mounted on camshaft 145 for rotational movement about a horizontal axis and having a cam groove 148 on one face thereof. Riding in the groove 148 is a cam roller 149 carried by an elongated horizontally disposed bar 150 mounted at its ends on the downwardly projecting arms of a pair of bellcranks 151, 151 mounted on the frame 123 for pivotal movement about fixed axes 152, 152. The other arms of the bellcranks 151 are connected to and support the end transverse blocks 134 to which the guide bars 133 are secured. Mounted on the cam shaft 145 is a sprocket 153 which is connected by a chain 154 to a sprocket 146 provided on the shaft of motor 128 whereby such shaft 145 and cam 144 are driven in the direction indicated by the arrows. As a result of this construction, the cam 148 will cause the unit composed of the guide bars 133 and the end blocks 134, and consequently the impression plate 130, to be raised during the forward stroke of the latter, and to be lowered on the return stroke of the impression plate. Thus, on the forward stroke of the impression plate 130 it will cause the strip portion 25' to be engaged by the blanket 21 for the printing operation, while on the return stroke thereof the strip portion 25 will be disengaged from the blanket.

Mounted on one side of the carriage 131 is a supply roll 155 and a rewind roll 156. The paper strip 25 passes from supply roll 155, around a feed roll 157 and over the impression plate 130 to the rewind roll 156. The paper is caused to be fed from the supply roll 155 to the rewind roll 156 by mechanism comprising a pulley wheel 158 mounted for rotation with the re wind roll 156, a friction drive belt 159, and a pulley wheel 166 forming part of an overrunning clutch 160 mounted on a rotatable shaft 167 and constructed to drive in the direction of the arrow on the return stroke of such slide. The shaft 167 has connected thereto an arm 161 which is connected at its outer end to one end of a link 162. The other end of the link 162 is adjustably and pivotally connected in a known manner to a vertically disposed member 163 pivotally connected at its upper end to the carriage 131. The member 163 is provided on its lower end with an arcuately-shaped gear segment 164 which engages with the teeth of a horizontal rack 165 connected at its ends to the transverse blocks 134. As a result of this arrangement, when the carriage 131 advances, the gear segment 164 will oscillate on the rack 165 and cause the link 162 to oscillate the arm 161 in a counterclockwise direction, in the idling direction of the clutch 160. On the return movement of the carriage 131, the segment 164 and rack 165 will coact with the link 162 to oscillate the arm 161 in the clockwise direction, thereby driving the clutch 160 through roll 157 is a feed roll 169 constructed and arranged in the manner of the feed roll 57 in the construction of FIG. 1.

It will be observed from the foregoing description, that in the embodiment of FIG. 6, the impression segment is a reciprocating plate and that the paper web 25 is printed on the forward stroke of such plate and is fed on the return stroke thereof. As in the case of the constructions described in FIGS. 1-5, the paper web as a whole partakes of the movements of the means of which the impression plate forms a part and moves relative to such means in the idle portion of the cycle of movement of the impression plate. The amount of feed of the paper is controlled by the adjustment of the connection of link 162 with the gear segment 164 and a feed index such as the feed index 82, 83 in the construction of FIG. 1 may be provided on such parts.

FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of the invention in which the impression cylinder is intermittently advanced, and the supply and rewind rolls are not carried by the impression cylinder, but are located exteriorly therefrom. In the embodiment of FIG. 7, the blanket cylinder 175 is connected directly to the main drive, such as the motor 42 in FIG. 1, by a sprocket 176 and chain 177 drive. The cylinder 175 and the plate cylinder 178 are geared together in the manner of the cylinders and in the embodiment of FIG. 1 to drive the plate cylinder. The impresion cylinder 180 is given its operational movements by two earns 181 and 182 mounted on the camshaft 183 driven from the plate cylinder 178 by a positive drive. As is shown in FIG. 7, such positive drive may include a sprocket I84 mounted on camshaft 183, a chain 185, and a drive sprocket 186 having an associated gear mounted in mesh with gear 187 secured to the shaft 188 of the plate cylinder 178. This positive drive is designed to rotate the camshaft 183 at the same r.p.m. as that imparted to the plate cylinder 178 through the blanket cylinder 175. Cam 181 is associated with mechanism which imparts a reciprocating motion to the impression cylinder drive rack 201, and cam 182 functions to drop the impression cylinder after each printing operation. As shown in FIG. 7, the impression cylinder 180 is mounted on a shaft 190 rotatably supported on a yoke-shaped arm 191 of a bellcrank mounted for reciprocating movement on a fixed pivot 192. The other arm 193 of the bellcrank is provided with a cam roller 194 which rides on the peripheral cam surface of cam 182. Cam 182 is an adjustable cam, being composed of two plates adjustably connected together in a manner known to the art to provide a rise 195 which is adjustable in its start but drops off at the same time in each cycle. This adjustability of cam 182 is utilized to take care of impressions of different lengths to be applied to the paper strip 25, such as occur in different label lengths. The end of bellcrank arm 193 is also provided with a brake member 196 which cooperates with a brake member 197 mounted on a fixed support 198 to grip the paper strip when the cam roller 194 drops off the compound rise 195 of cam 182.

Mounted on the impression cylinder shaft 190 is a pinion 200 that is engaged by a rack 201 having a reciprocating horizontal movement as indicated by the double-headed arrow. The rack 201 imparts to the pinion 200 a reciprocating motion which is utilized to drive the shaft 190 and the impression cylinder 180 in a counterclockwise direction only, i.e., the direction of feed of the strip 25, through an overrunning clutch 202. The range of reciprocating movement of the rack 201, and consequently the length of the impression cylinders peripheral surface which is continuous throughout, that is advanced in each complete stroke of such rack, will depend on the maximum length of the impression that is to be made on the paper strip and the maximum distance to be maintained between successive impressions. This range of movement of the rack 201 is controlled by the design of cam 181 which is connected to the rack through a bellcrank lever mounted for movement about a fixed pivot and having an arm 205 carrying a roller engageable with the peripheral cam surface of cam 181 and an am 206 connected to one end of the rack 201. The peripheral surface of cam 181has a constant velocity profile to match the impression cylinders surface speed to that of the blanket 207 on cylinder and profile portions adjoining the beginning and end of such constant velocity portion to cause an acceleration and deceleration blending, respectively, into the constant velocity. The constant velocity portion of the profile of cam 181 terminates at a point corresponding to the dropoff point of the rise 195 on cam 182.

The paper strip 25 is drawn from a supply roll 210 by a pair of feed rolls 211 constructed and arranged in a manner known to the art to feed the strip or web 25 into a free loop 212 of sufficient depth to provide a minimum constant tension on the web as it is being fed by the cooperative clamping action of the blanket 207 on the cylinder 175 and the impression cylinder and to retard the movement of the portion of such strip on the impression cylinder when the latter drops. It will be noted that the brake members 196, 197 engage the strip on the discharge side of the loop. It will also be noted that when the impression cylinder 180 drops, the bottom of its periphery will come into engagement with a fixed brake 203 which immediately stops its rotative movement. The paper strip 25 passes from the loop 212 over a free guide roll 213 mounted on the bellcrank pivot 192 and then over the impression cylinder 180 to a rewind roll 215. The rewind roll 215 is driven to take up the strip as it is fed from the loop 212 by a pulley 216 mounted on the shaft of such roll, a friction belt 217, and a pulley 218 mounted on the driven shaft of the impression cylinder.

It will be understood from the foregoing, that the plate cylinder 178 is drivenly connected to the blanket cylinder 175 which is connected directly to the main drive, but there is no geared connection between the blanket cylinder and the impression cylinder 180. Instead the impression cylinder is advanced in a step-by-step fashion by a cam drive positively driven by the plate cylinder 178. When the impression cylinder 180 is advanced one step on the forward stroke of the rack 20], it will be in raised condition with its peripheral surface in such engagement with the blanket 207 on cylinder 175 that their bite advances the strip 25 during their rolling contact with each other. During such advancement of the strip 25 by the cylinders 175, 180 the blanket transfers the inked impressions thereon to the paper strip. At the same time, the rewind roll 215 will be frictionally driven to take up a corresponding length of the paper strip fed by the two cylinders. At the end of such printing operation, the cam 182 causes the impression cylinder 180 to drop, after which such cylinder decelerates and stops. As soon as the impression cylinder 180 drops, the braking elements 196, 197 grip the paper strip to prevent any tendency of the strip to advance under its own momentum and the cylinder comes into engagement with the fixed brake 203 to overcome its momentum. Simultaneously also, the machine is rendered inoperative to print on the strip 25 and if the impression cylinder 180 is provided with punching means in the manner of the cylinder 30 in the construction shown in FIG. 4, such dropping of the impression cylinder also simultaneously renders the punching means inoperative because the operating roller associated with the latter will be moved out of possible engagement with an operating cam provided on the blanket cylinder 175 in the manner shown with respect to the blanket cylinder 20 in the construction of FIG. 4. In the next cycle of operation of the press, the impression cylinder initially will be disengaged from the brake 203 and then after the surface of the impression cylinder 180 has reached the desired constant velocity under the action of cam 181, rack 201 and pinion 200, cam 182 will raise such cylinder further as indicated by the dotted outline of the top of such cylinder to bring the strip or web 25 into clamped relation with the cylinder 175 and thereby cause it to start moving in exact timed relation with the printed images on the blanket 207.

FIG. 8 of the drawings illustrates how a supply takeup roll arrangement such as shown in FIG. 7 of the drawings may be embodied in the arrangement shown in FIG. 6 of the drawings should it be desired not to mount such rolls on the carriage 131 of such apparatus, but instead mount them on standards separate from such carriage in order to take care of a greater supply of the strip 25 or for any other reason. In FIG. 8 of the drawings, carriage 131 is partially indicated in dotted outline and the plate segment 130 is provided thereon in the manner shown in FIG. 6. Except for the change in position of the supply and takeup rolls and the additional means associated with the feed of the strip 25, the mechanisms associated with the carriage 131 will be the same as those disclosed in FIG. 6. As is shown in FIG. 8, the supply roll 155 and the takeup roll [56 are rotatably mounted on separate roll supporting standards 220 and 221, respectively, that may stand on the floor in association with the printing apparatus. Cooperative feed rolls 223 and 224 feed the strip 25 from the supply roll 155 into a free loop 222 located between such feed rolls and the feed rolls 157, 169 positioned in this embodiment as in that of FIG. 6, adjacent to the strip entry or upstream end of the impression plate 130. The strip is intennittently withdrawn from the free loop 222 in given lengths which are properly successively positioned on the plate 130 during the return strokes of the carriage 131 by the feed rolls 157, 169 and an associated pair of feed rolls 225, 226 positioned adjacent to the discharge or downstream end of the impression plate 130. The feed role 226 is driven from the feed roll 157 by a pulley wheel 227 associated with the latter, a friction belt 228 and a pulley wheel 229 associated with feed roll 226. The printed strip discharged by the feed rolls 225, 226 is discharged into a free loop 230 from which it is withdrawn by the takeup roll 156. Associated with the takeup roll 156, is a pulley wheel 231, friction belt 232 and pulley wheel 233 driven by a motor 234. The operation of motor 234 is controlled by photoelectric cells 235, 236 arranged with relation to the free loop 230 in a known manner so that the motor is actuated to cause the takeup roll 156 to take up the strip material when the loop interrupts the beam of the photoelectric cell 235, and so that the motor is stopped when the loop 230 rises above the cell 236. A similar arrangement of photoelectric cells 237, 238 may be employed with the loop 222 to control the feed of the feed rolls 223, 224. Associated with the takeup roll 156 is a container 239 forming a suction chamber positioned close to the path of travel of the strip from the loop 230 to the roll 156 and adjacent to the latter so that the suction in such chamber exerts a braking action on the strip sufficient to put tension on the strip as it is winding up on the roll. The open side of the container 239 over which the strip travels is provided with a screen 240 to facilitate the passage of the strip across such open side. The container 239 is connected by a pipe 241 to a suitable source of suction such as the pump 242. As a result of this arrangement, the rewound roll of the printed strip is made tight without interfering with the fluctuating or oscillating movements of the free loop 230 through the range defined by the photoelectric cells 235, 236. While the aforesaid arrangement of feeding the strip 25 through two free loops adjacent to the upstream and downstream ends of the impression plate 130 is especially advantageous in connection with a reciprocating construction of the type shown in FIG. 6 of the drawings, it is withinthe contemplation of the invention to employ a like arrangement in connection with a rotatable impression cylinder, as for example with the arrangement shown in FIG. 7 of the drawings.

While there has been hereinabove described and illustrated in the drawings by way of example, several press constructions embodying the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications thereof and other embodiments of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a printing machine, movable means comprising a rotatable impression cylinder having a segmental web supporting surface, means to impart cyclic movement to said movable means, means carried by said movable means to support a supply roll of a strip of sheet material, means carried by said movable means to support a rewind roll of said strip, means carried by said movable means for feeding said strip from a supply roll supported thereon, and over said segmental-websupporting surface to a rewind roll supported thereby, said rotatable impression cylinder being constituted of two side walls having spaced rotatably supported means projecting outwardly therefrom and connected in driven relation to said cyclic movement imparting means and said segmental-websupporting surface being located at the periphery thereof and bridging the space between said walls, said cyclic movement imparting means rotating said cylinder, and said supply and rewind roll-supporting means and said strip-feeding means being located in said cylinder between said walls and spaced rotatably supported means, said feeding means being constructed and arranged to intermittently feed the strip of sheet material to advance successive portions of said strip into position on said segmental web supporting surface in a step-bystep fashion, means for varying the rate of feed of the strip by any given infinitesimal amount to vary the spacing between repeats produced on said strip from zero wherein the repeats are in abutting relation to a given maximum dimension, punching means operative to punch a hole in the strip during each period of dwell in the intermittent feed thereof, and means having a cyclic movement diflerent from that of said movable means for actuating said punching means.

2. In a printing machine, a printing cylinder for applying a printing impression on its peripheral surface to successive portions of a strip of sheet material at a place along a path of travel of said strip and having a peripheral circumferential dimension greater than the length of such printing impression so that there is at least one gap between the ends of such impression, means for revolving said cylinder to move its peripheral surface at a continuous, given, constant velocity, means providing an impression surface coactable with the peripheral surface of said cylinder at said place during each application of an impression to the sheet material, means for supporting a supply roll of said strip, means for supporting a rewind roll of the printed strip, means for intermittently moving the strip relative to said impression surface in the intervals between such coactable relation of said surface and cylinder to advance successive portions of said strip into position for successive applications thereto by the repeated coaction of said cylinder and impression surface, said strip-moving means comprising a roll engageable with the strip to move the same, clutch means connected to said strip moving roll and operable to drive the latter in a direction to advance the strip supplied from a supported supply roll thereof, and means for operating said clutch means to advance the strip, including means reciprocative about an axis and drivingly connected to said clutch means and operative during one direction of movement thereof to drive said clutch means, means pivotal about a fixed axis, means connecting said pivotal means to said reciprocative means at the latters reciprocative axis, and means for shifting the position of the reciprocative axis of said reciprocative means relative to said fixed axis to cause said reciprocative means to drive said strip moving roll through said clutch means to advance the strip an amount dependent upon the shifted relation of said fixed and reciprocative axes, said shifting means being operable to effect any given gradient variation in the length of the strip between repeats of the impression to obtain the printing of such impressions on the strip in any given registered relation including the printing of impressions on the strip in abutting relation without gaps therebetween.

3. In a printing machine as defined in claim 2, including driven means connecting said clutch means to said rewind roll supporting means, and in which said reciprocative means is drivingly connected to said driven means so that in said one direction of movement thereof it drives both said clutch and driven means, whereby said operating means simultaneously operates said clutch means and said driven means to advance the strip from a supply roll thereof and to take up the strip on a rewind roll.

4. In a machine as defined in claim 3, in which said means providing an impression surface is constituted of a reciprocating carriage having an impression plate provided thereon, means for supporting said supplyand rewind-supporting means, said strip moving means, and said driven means on said carriage, means supporting said carriage for horizontal slidable movement, means for imparting horizontal slidable reciprocating movement to said carriage, means coactable with said carriage-supporting means to raise and lower the same and said carriage to raise said impression plate on one stroke thereof to bring the strip into engagement with said cylinder, and to lower said plate on the other stroke thereof to disengage the strip from said cylinder, and said strip moving means including means connected to said pivotal means and coactable with means carried by said carriage-supporting means to advance the strip on said other stroke of said impression plate.

5. In a printing machine as defined in claim 2, in which said means providing an impression surface is constituted of a rotatable cagelike cylinder having sidewalls, peripheral bridging means including a segmental impression member connecting said walls together, and spaced shaft means projecting outwardly from said sidewalls whereby the interior central portion of said cylinder provides an unobstructed space, said supplyrolland rewind-roll-supporting means and said strip-moving means being contained in the space in said cylinder and between the spaced shaft means thereof.

6. ln a printing machine as defined in claim 2, in which said means providing an impression surface comprises a reciprocating carriage, and means connected to said carriage for reciprocating the same horizontally, said reciprocating means being constructed and arranged to raise said carriage on one stroke thereof to bring the strip into engagement with said cylinder, and to lower said carriage on the other stroke thereof to disengage the strip from said cylinder.

7. In a machine as defined in claim 6, in which said carriage comprises a framework, means supporting said framework for horizontal movement, and in which said reciprocating means comprises means for imparting horizontal movement to said framework, and means coactable with said supporting means to alternately raise and lower the same and thereby alternately raise and lower said carriage framework.

8. in a printing machine as defined in claim 2, including a first strip-feeding means comprising means for feeding said strip from a supply roll thereof into a first loop formed by said strips, and means including said strip-moving roll for drawing the strip in a step-by-step fashion from said loop and advancing it to said impression surface, and including a second stripfeeding means comprising means for feeding the strip discharging from said impression surface into a second loop formed by said strip, and means for drawing the strip from said second loop and winding it on a roll supported by said rewindroll-supporting means.

9. In a printing machine as defined in claim 8, including means cooperative with said drawing means to place a tension on the successive portions of the strip being drawn from the second loop to the rewind roll without effecting the changes in size of such second loop.

10. in a printing machine as defined in claim 2, in which said shifting means is operable to render said strip-moving means inoperative to move the strip, and including means controlled by said shifting means and controlling the coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder, said controlled means being operative when said shifting means is actuated to stop the movement of the strip, to break such coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder and thereby to interrupt the printing of impressions on the strip.

11. [n a printing machine, a printing cylinder for applying a printing impression on its peripheral surface to successive portions of a strip of sheet material at a place along a path of travel of said strip and having a peripheral circumferential dimension greater than the length of such printing impression so that there is at least one gap between the ends of such impression, means for revolving said cylinder to move its peripheral surface at a continuous, given, constant velocity, means providing an impression surface coactable with the peripheral surface of said cylinder at said place during each application of an impression to the sheet material, means including a roller for intermittently moving the strip of sheet material relative to said impression surface in the intervals between such coactable relation of said surface and cylinder to advance successive portions of such strip in a step-by-step fashion into position upon said impression surface where they remain stationary relative thereto during successive applications of impressions to such strip portions by the repeated coaction of said cylinder and impression surface, and means connected to and controlling said intermittent feeding means including first operable means movable in an orbit about a first given axis and connected to and operable to drive said feed roller in a direction to advance the strip, a second operable means connected to said first operable means and movable in an orbit about a second given axis, shifting means operable to position the given axes of said first and second operable means in coinciding relation to render said first and second operable means inoperative to advance the strip, said shifting means being actuatable to cause the given axis of one of said first and second operable means to be shifted to a position displaced from the given axis of the other operable means so as to cause said second operable means to actuate said first operable means to advance the strip an amount dependent upon the distance of displacement between said first and second given axes, said shiftable means being actuatable progressively to effect any given gradient variation in the length of the strip between repeats of the impression to obtain the printing of such impressions on the strip in any given registered relation including the printing of impressions on the strip in abutting relation without gaps therebetween.

12. in a machine as defined in claim 11, including means controlled by said shifting means and controlling the coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder, said controlled means being operative when said shifting means'is actuated to position the given axes of said first and second operable means in coinciding relation, to break such coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder and thereby to interrupt the printing of impressions on the strip.

13. In a machine as defined in claim 11, in which said means providing an impression surface is constituted of a rotatable cylinder having such surface provided on the periphery thereof and having an axis of rotation coinciding with said first given axis, means for rotating said impression cylinder at a given constant velocity about said first given axis, said first operable means comprising clutch means radially fixed with relation to said first given axis and rotated thereabout by said impression-cylinder-rotating means, said second operable means being mounted for reciprocating movement relative to said first given axis and rotated about said second given axis by said impression-cylinder-rotating means.

14. In a machine as defined in claim 13, in which said clutch means comprises a clutch shaft and means supporting said clutch shaft for rotatable movement about its longitudinal axis and for translatory movement about said first given axis in a circular orbit of fixed radius, said second operable means constituting a member mounted on said clutch shaft and disposed in offset relation to the longitudinal axis thereof.

15. In a machine as defined in claim ll, in which said shifting means comprises means pivotal about a fixed axis, means mounted on said pivotal means at a place spaced from said fixed axis for rotative movement about said second given axis and rotatably connecting said second operable means to said pivotal means at said spaced place, and means operable to pivot said pivotal means about said fixed axis to shift said rotative means and said second given axis.

16. In a machine as defined in claim 15, in which said pivotal means is provided at said spaced place with a bearing hub and said rotative means is constituted of a bearing mounted on said hub and a link rotatably supported by said bearing, said link being connected to said second operable means.

17. In a machine as defined in claim 15, in which said shifting means comprises movable operable means connected to said pivotal means and actuatable to pivot said pivotal means about said fixed axis to an adjusted position, means associated with said movable operable means for indicating the change in position of said pivotal means about said fixed axis, and disengageable locking means for locking said movable operable means when said pivotal means has been pivoted to an adjusted position.

18. In a machine as defined in claim 17, including means controlling the coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder, and means associated with said movable operable means and actuated by the latter to break such coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder and thereby to interrupt the printing of impressions on the strip, when said pivotal means has been pivoted to a position in which the given axes of said first and second operable means are in coinciding relation.

19. In a printing machine, an offset printing cylinder for applying a printing impression on its peripheral surface to successive portions of a strip of sheet material at a place along a path of travel of said strip and having a peripheral circumferential dimension greater than the length of such printing impression so that there is at least one gap between the ends of such impression, means for revolving said cylinder to move its peripheral surface at a continuous, given, constant velocity, means providing an impression surface coactable with the peripheral surface of said cylinder at said place during each application of an impression to the sheet material, means to impart cyclic movement to said means providing an impression surface, means for supporting a supply roll of said strip, means for supporting a rewind roll of the printed strip, means for intermittently moving the strip relative to said impression surface in the intervals between such coactable relation of said surface and cylinder to advance successive portions of said strip into position for successive applications thereto by the repeated coaction of said cylinder and impression surface, means operable to effect any given gradient variation in the length of the strip between repeats of the impression to obtain the printing of such impressions on the strip in any given registered relation from zero length wherein the impressions are in abutting relation to a given maximum dimension, punching means operable in the periods of dwell in the intermittent feed of the strip to punch in the strip a series of holes in a spaced relation related to the registered relation of the impressions printed on the strip, and means having a cyclic movement different from that of said means providing an impression surface for actuating said punching means.

20. In a printing machine as defined in claim 19, in which said punch-actuating means comprises movable means controlling the operation of said punching means, and means located in said gap on said printing cylinder cyclically coactive with said movable means to operate said punching means.

21. In a printing machine as defined in claim I9, including means operative to render said punch-actuating means inoperative to actuate said punching means whenever said coactable relation of said impression surface and cylinder is interrupted.

22. In a printing machine as defined in claim 19, including first means operative to render said strip moving means inoperative to advance the strip, and second means controlled by said first operative means and operative to render said punch-actuating means inoperative to actuate said punching means whenever the advancement of the strip is interrupted by said first operative means. 

1. In a printing machine, movable means comprising a rotatable impression cylinder having a segmental web supporting surface, means to impart cyclic movement to said movable means, means carried by said movable means to support a supply roll of a strip of sheet material, means carried by said movable means to support a rewind roll of said strip, means carried by said movable means for feeding said strip from a supply roll supported thereon, and over said segmental-web-supporting surface to a rewind roll supported thereby, said rotatable impression cylinder being constituted of two side walls having spaced rotatably supported means projecting outwardly therefrom and connected in driven relation to said cyclic movement imparting means and said segmental-web-supporting surface being located at the periphery thereof and bridging the space between said walls, said cyclic movement imparting means rotating said cylinder, and said supply and rewind roll-supporting means and said strip-feeding means being located in said cylinder between said walls and spaced rotatably supported means, said feeding means being constructed and arranged to intermittently feed the strip of sheet material to advance successive portions of said strip into position on said segmental web supporting surface in a step-by-step fashion, means for varying the rate of feed of the strip by any given infinitesimal amount to vary the spacing between repeats produced on said strip from zero wherein the repeats are in abutting relation to a given maximum dimension, punching means operative to punch a hole in the strip during each period of dwell in the intermittent feed thereof, and means having a cyclic movement different from that of said movable means for actuating said punching means.
 2. In a printing machine, a printing cylinder for applying a printing impression on its peripheral surface to successive portions of a strip of sheet material at a place along a path of travel of said strip and having a peripheral circumferential dimension greater than the length of such printing impression so that there is at least one gap between the ends of such impression, means for revolving said cylinder to move its peripheral surface at a continuous, given, constant velocity, means providing an impression surface coactable with the peripheral surface of said cylinder at said place during each application of an impression to the sheet material, means for supporting a supply roll of said strip, means for supporting a rewind roll of the printed strip, means for intermittently moving the strip relative to said impression surface in the intervals between such coactable relation of said surface and cylinder to advance successive portions of said strip into position for successive applications thereto by the repeated coaction of said cylinder and impression surface, said strip-moving means comprising a roll engageable with the strip to move the same, clutch means connected to said strip moving roll and operable to drive the latter in a direction to advance the strip supplied from a supported supply roll thereof, and means for operating said clutch means to advance the strip, including means reciprocative about an axis and drivingly connected to said clutch means and operative during one direction of movement thereof to drive said clutch means, means pivotal about a fixed axis, means connecting said pivotal means to said reciprocative means at the latter''s reciprocative axis, and means for shifting the position of the reciprocative axis of said reciprocative means relative to said fixed axis to cause said reciprocative means to drive said strip moving roll through said clutch means to advance the strip an amount dependent upon the shifted relation of said fixed and reciprocative axes, said shifting means being operable to effect any given gradient variation in the length of the strip between repeats of the impression to obtain the printing of such impressions on the strip in any given registered relation including the printing of impressions on the strip in abutting relation without gaps therebetween.
 3. In a printing machine as defined in claim 2, including driven means connecting said clutch means to said rewind roll supporting means, and in which said reciprocative means is drivingly connected to said driven means so that in said one direction of movement thereof it drives both said clutch and driven means, whereby said operating means simultaneously operates said clutch means and said driven means to advance the strip from a supply roll thereof and to take up the strip on a rewind roll.
 4. In a machine as defined in claim 3, in which said means providing an impression surface is constituted of a reciprocating carriage having an impression plate provided thereon, means for supporting said supply- and rewind-supporting means, said strip moving means, and said driven means on said carriage, means supporting said carriage for horizontal slidable movement, means for imparting horizontal slidable reciprocating movement to said carriage, means coactable with said carriage-supporting means to raise and lower the same and said carriage to raise said impression plate on one stroke thereof to bring the strip into engagement with said cylinder, and to lower said plate on the other stroke thereof to disengage the strip from said cylinder, and said strip moving means including means connected to said pivotal means and coactable with means carried by said carriage-supporting means to advance the strip on said other stroke of said impression plate.
 5. In a printing machine as defined in claim 2, in which said means providing an impression surface is constituted of a rotatable cagelike cylinder having sidewalls, peripheral bridging means including a segmental impression member connecting said walls together, and spaced shaft means projecting outwardly from said sidewalls whereby the interior central portion of said cylinder provides an unobstructed space, said supply-roll- and rewind-roll-supporting means and said strip-moving means being contained in the space in said cylinder and between the spaced shaft means thereof.
 6. In a printing machine as defined in claim 2, in which said means providing an impression surface comprises a reciprocating carriage, and means connected to said carriage for reciprocating the same horizontally, said reciprocating means being constructed and arranged to raise said carriage on one stroke thereof to bring the strip into engagement with said cylinder, and to lower said carriage on the other stroke thereof to disengage the strip from said cylinder.
 7. In a machine as defined in claim 6, in which said carriage comprises a framework, means supporting said framework for horizontal movement, and in which said reciprocating means comprises means for imparting horizontal movement to said framework, and means coactable with said supporting means to alternately raise and lower the same and thereby alternately raise and lower said carriage framework.
 8. In a printing machine as defined in claiM 2, including a first strip-feeding means comprising means for feeding said strip from a supply roll thereof into a first loop formed by said strips, and means including said strip-moving roll for drawing the strip in a step-by-step fashion from said loop and advancing it to said impression surface, and including a second strip-feeding means comprising means for feeding the strip discharging from said impression surface into a second loop formed by said strip, and means for drawing the strip from said second loop and winding it on a roll supported by said rewind-roll-supporting means.
 9. In a printing machine as defined in claim 8, including means cooperative with said drawing means to place a tension on the successive portions of the strip being drawn from the second loop to the rewind roll without effecting the changes in size of such second loop.
 10. In a printing machine as defined in claim 2, in which said shifting means is operable to render said strip-moving means inoperative to move the strip, and including means controlled by said shifting means and controlling the coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder, said controlled means being operative when said shifting means is actuated to stop the movement of the strip, to break such coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder and thereby to interrupt the printing of impressions on the strip.
 11. In a printing machine, a printing cylinder for applying a printing impression on its peripheral surface to successive portions of a strip of sheet material at a place along a path of travel of said strip and having a peripheral circumferential dimension greater than the length of such printing impression so that there is at least one gap between the ends of such impression, means for revolving said cylinder to move its peripheral surface at a continuous, given, constant velocity, means providing an impression surface coactable with the peripheral surface of said cylinder at said place during each application of an impression to the sheet material, means including a roller for intermittently moving the strip of sheet material relative to said impression surface in the intervals between such coactable relation of said surface and cylinder to advance successive portions of such strip in a step-by-step fashion into position upon said impression surface where they remain stationary relative thereto during successive applications of impressions to such strip portions by the repeated coaction of said cylinder and impression surface, and means connected to and controlling said intermittent feeding means including first operable means movable in an orbit about a first given axis and connected to and operable to drive said feed roller in a direction to advance the strip, a second operable means connected to said first operable means and movable in an orbit about a second given axis, shifting means operable to position the given axes of said first and second operable means in coinciding relation to render said first and second operable means inoperative to advance the strip, said shifting means being actuatable to cause the given axis of one of said first and second operable means to be shifted to a position displaced from the given axis of the other operable means so as to cause said second operable means to actuate said first operable means to advance the strip an amount dependent upon the distance of displacement between said first and second given axes, said shiftable means being actuatable progressively to effect any given gradient variation in the length of the strip between repeats of the impression to obtain the printing of such impressions on the strip in any given registered relation including the printing of impressions on the strip in abutting relation without gaps therebetween.
 12. In a machine as defined in claim 11, including means controlled by said shifting means and controlling the coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder, said controlled means Being operative when said shifting means is actuated to position the given axes of said first and second operable means in coinciding relation, to break such coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder and thereby to interrupt the printing of impressions on the strip.
 13. In a machine as defined in claim 11, in which said means providing an impression surface is constituted of a rotatable cylinder having such surface provided on the periphery thereof and having an axis of rotation coinciding with said first given axis, means for rotating said impression cylinder at a given constant velocity about said first given axis, said first operable means comprising clutch means radially fixed with relation to said first given axis and rotated thereabout by said impression-cylinder-rotating means, said second operable means being mounted for reciprocating movement relative to said first given axis and rotated about said second given axis by said impression-cylinder-rotating means.
 14. In a machine as defined in claim 13, in which said clutch means comprises a clutch shaft and means supporting said clutch shaft for rotatable movement about its longitudinal axis and for translatory movement about said first given axis in a circular orbit of fixed radius, said second operable means constituting a member mounted on said clutch shaft and disposed in offset relation to the longitudinal axis thereof.
 15. In a machine as defined in claim 11, in which said shifting means comprises means pivotal about a fixed axis, means mounted on said pivotal means at a place spaced from said fixed axis for rotative movement about said second given axis and rotatably connecting said second operable means to said pivotal means at said spaced place, and means operable to pivot said pivotal means about said fixed axis to shift said rotative means and said second given axis.
 16. In a machine as defined in claim 15, in which said pivotal means is provided at said spaced place with a bearing hub and said rotative means is constituted of a bearing mounted on said hub and a link rotatably supported by said bearing, said link being connected to said second operable means.
 17. In a machine as defined in claim 15, in which said shifting means comprises movable operable means connected to said pivotal means and actuatable to pivot said pivotal means about said fixed axis to an adjusted position, means associated with said movable operable means for indicating the change in position of said pivotal means about said fixed axis, and disengageable locking means for locking said movable operable means when said pivotal means has been pivoted to an adjusted position.
 18. In a machine as defined in claim 17, including means controlling the coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder, and means associated with said movable operable means and actuated by the latter to break such coactable relation of said impression surface and said cylinder and thereby to interrupt the printing of impressions on the strip, when said pivotal means has been pivoted to a position in which the given axes of said first and second operable means are in coinciding relation.
 19. In a printing machine, an offset printing cylinder for applying a printing impression on its peripheral surface to successive portions of a strip of sheet material at a place along a path of travel of said strip and having a peripheral circumferential dimension greater than the length of such printing impression so that there is at least one gap between the ends of such impression, means for revolving said cylinder to move its peripheral surface at a continuous, given, constant velocity, means providing an impression surface coactable with the peripheral surface of said cylinder at said place during each application of an impression to the sheet material, means to impart cyclic movement to said means providing an impression surface, means for supporting a supply roll of said strip, means for supporting a rewind roll of the priNted strip, means for intermittently moving the strip relative to said impression surface in the intervals between such coactable relation of said surface and cylinder to advance successive portions of said strip into position for successive applications thereto by the repeated coaction of said cylinder and impression surface, means operable to effect any given gradient variation in the length of the strip between repeats of the impression to obtain the printing of such impressions on the strip in any given registered relation from zero length wherein the impressions are in abutting relation to a given maximum dimension, punching means operable in the periods of dwell in the intermittent feed of the strip to punch in the strip a series of holes in a spaced relation related to the registered relation of the impressions printed on the strip, and means having a cyclic movement different from that of said means providing an impression surface for actuating said punching means.
 20. In a printing machine as defined in claim 19, in which said punch-actuating means comprises movable means controlling the operation of said punching means, and means located in said gap on said printing cylinder cyclically coactive with said movable means to operate said punching means.
 21. In a printing machine as defined in claim 19, including means operative to render said punch-actuating means inoperative to actuate said punching means whenever said coactable relation of said impression surface and cylinder is interrupted.
 22. In a printing machine as defined in claim 19, including first means operative to render said strip moving means inoperative to advance the strip, and second means controlled by said first operative means and operative to render said punch-actuating means inoperative to actuate said punching means whenever the advancement of the strip is interrupted by said first operative means. 